Monday 28 February 2011

Aeration - The Essential Turf Management Practice

Today we started Hollow Coring the tees with the John Deere Aercore, this type of aeration removes 12mm diameter cores from the turf surface. Of all the turf management practices that we use to maintain healthy turf on the golf course, aeration is by far the most important.
 

Coring 1st Tee Murrayfield


This process relieves soil compaction, improves the movement of water and air through the soil and promotes good root development.






Within the next few days we will apply a Nitrogen / Potash based fertiliser to promote growth and enhance recovery, finally the tees will be top dressed with sand to back fill the holes and to help restore surface levels.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Gorse Management


Recently we have been clearing some areas of gorse that were close to play and gorse that had now become increasingly woody and in poor condition.
Due to the dense growth structure of the gorse bushes, normally only the outer canopy receives any light, and as the bush expands the centre becomes unproductive, causing die back and wilt.  





                                                 Degenerate Gorse between Holes 5 & 6

To encourage healthy and robust plants the gorse is being coppiced to a height of  150 mm above ground level, this type of coppicing will prevent it's decline and ultimately extend the life of the gorse stand, whilst this seems extreme it is amazing how quickly the gorse regenerates. 





                                                        Healthy well maintained gorse 


Given the visual importance of the gorse on the course, we intend to carry out coppicing on a phased basis, allowing one area of gorse to regenerate before coppicing the next area. This ensures that mature gorse is always available for shelter, and as a food source for the wildlife that depend on it.




Bill Lyon
Golf Course Manager

Monday 21 February 2011

Welcome to the Murrayfield Golf Club - Course Management Blog

Welcome to the inaugural posting on our - "MGC Course Management Blog"

The aim of this blog site is to provide members and visitors with information about a wide range of golf course maintenance activities. This will include information on projects currently being undertaken and future works planned and explaining some of the reasoning behind them.

We anticipate this new blog site will be a springboard for future slideshows, photos, videos, articles, and updates regarding the golf course activities we do on a regular basis.

Please post comments and questions using the 'comments' link below each post.

Regards

Bill Lyon & All The Course Team